1. Field of Application
This invention relates to paper tape housings, and more particularly to a housing for positioning a paper tape roll in a business machine for subsequent ready and easy threading into the tape feed and printing mechanisms.
2. Description of Prior Art
The great majority of business machines, such as cash registers, calculating machines, accounting machines and the like provide a spindle mounting for their paper tape rolls. More often then not access to the paper tape and spindle is by a door in the side of the business machine. This is especially true for cash registers.
When the paper tape is to be replaced the machine operator must gain access to the paper tape housing, remove the depleted tape roll from the spindle, and place the new roll of tape on the spindle. Thereafter the operator must thread the end of the new paper tape into the paper feed machanism, for subsequent passage into and through the receipt printer and out of an exit window or door approximately disposed in the business machine.
For most business machines paper tape replacement is a cumbersome chore; but for cash registers with side access doors to the tape housing the operator must either assume an awkward position to replace and thread the tape or move from the normal machine use position to the side of the register. In the awkward position tape threading becomes all but impossible, while if the operator moves to the side of the register the cash drawer is left unguarded so extra steps of locking and unlocking the register are required. Alternatively the operator may turn the register around but registers are usually too heavy for operators, especially female operators, to move and quite often the register is disposed in a tight space which does not permit any such movement.
Some business machines, such as those shown in U.S. Letter Pat. Nos. 1,362,791 to B. P. Hayes and F. D. Laughlin, 3,476,230 to W. S. Hunter, and 3,593,833 to F. Bretti, avoid the tape on spindle problem by placing the tape roll in a trough like tray. Hunter is not, however, concerned with the complex tape feed and/or receipt dispensing structures associated with calculators and cash registers. The Bretti arrangement awkwardly positions the roll trough so that the access door obstructs sight thereof and access thereto in the normal operator use position for the machine, and so that subsequent threading of the paper tape is also hindered. The Hayes et al configuration still retains the side access door to the cash register with its inherent problems as well as a complex and cumbersome tape feed path.